Per MLive, they are showing up at the cull sites and “When they see sharpshooters, they yell, “Stop the shoot! Save the deer!” …. FAAWN member Lisa Abrams said they’re exercising their right to peacefully protest.”

What they are doing is actually illegal. Sec. 40112 of Michigan law says, “An individual shall not obstruct or interfere in the lawful taking of animals or fish by another individual.” The city has a legal permit to remove the deer. The protesters’ intent is to scare off the deer, or annoy the sharpshooters, or both. Deer aren’t going to walk into a site with a lot of unusual noise. That means that for the sharpshooters to do the job they were hired to do, they need to work more hours and charge the city more. Or they don’t get the target number of deer. A small group of protesters seek to undo the will of Council and undermine the deer management program. This is not how democracy works. Hopefully, the law can be enforced. A few fines will make the point – it’s $500 for the first offense and $1000 for the second offense. Here is the relevant statute: http://www.legislature.mi.gov/(S(uee4jcftxfjoawse0vyqz2wq))/mileg.aspx?page=getobject&objectname=mcl-324-40112

Ann Arbor, MI Mar. 14, 2017–The Community Deer Advisor team, a partnership of Cornell University and The Nature Conservancy, recently praised the City of Ann Arbor and a local group, Washtenaw Citizens for Ecological Balance (WC4EB), for being “exemplary” as the team looked around the nation for community-based deer management initiatives.

“The City of Ann Arbor stands out as ”exemplary in large part because of the degree of citizen engagement in the process and also because of its ongoing commitment to evaluation.”

Cornett added:

“We are very interested in developing Ann Arbor as a “full blown” community example with a greater level of detail.”

Cornett praised WC4EB’s website as“very informative,” adding “In fact, some of the communities in our map database were leads that we tracked down through wc4eb. Thank you for this great resource!” She requested permission to link from the Deer Advisor’s site. Now each website links to the other’s.

The local group’s website now features Facts about Deer and Their Management — Ann Arbor 2017, which summarizes the science of deer and their impact on ecological balance and links to the research.

WC4EB came together over two years ago to review and discuss deer biology and management, aiming to bring vetted information to the public through a website. The group includes landscape architects, naturalists, information professionals, and long time volunteers interested in supporting ecological balance. It is neither affiliated with, nor accepts funding from, any other group or organization.

Cornell University’s research on deer management is nationally recognized. The Nature Conservancy and Cornell University have launched Community Deer Advisoras a free online resource for communities seeking information about managing overabundant deer populations.

In the article which was about harvesting roadkill and sharing it with those who need it, there is this statementIn most of the United States, deer are by far the most likely animals to be hit by a vehicle. State Farm Insurance estimates that more than 1.2 million deer, elk and moose — mostly deer — were struck in 2015 in the United States, with West Virginia being statistically the most dangerous place to be an ungulate crossing the road.

1.2 million ungulates, mostly deer were killed in the US in 2015.
That means at least 1.2 million vehicles in accidents.
No mention of how many of the accidents were fatal (for the passengers).
No mention of how many actual accidents there might have been– considering some of the deer are able to run off, even if they do die shortly thereafter.

Several repellents are registered for use to prevent deer damage to plants, including putrescent whole egg solids, ammonium soaps, thiram, capsaicin, garlic, and blood meal. Several home remedies, such as human hair and soap are reported to be effective, but research does not support these claims. In general, the effectiveness of repellents is highly variable and dependent on alternative resources, deer densities, habituation, and motivation of individual deer. Repellents must be reapplied every 4 to 5 weeks if deer feeding pressure is high, and those applied to plants must also be reapplied to new growth. In the northeast, cold temperatures and snow limit applications during the winter months when deer damage to woody ornamentals and young trees is greatest.

The beasts are rampant here this late spring / early summer. Whereas the 2015 rampaging of the beasts here commenced with the July 8 “running of the bulls” ( Spain) this year it began 3 weeks earlier. The local pols persist in their shoulder shrugging act of “we’ve looked into all; the options. Nothing can be done.” Last night a neighbor & I were playing “chase the beast.” in the twilight. His little girl & their friends are worried about an outdoor sleep out ( in a tent) with the beasts prowling our properties. I told him she ought to come to a muni meeting to make that statement.

See my letter to a couple of gardeners who have a show on the local AM station

Best Regards,

in deer infested Castle Shannon …. A Deer Sanctuary City

———-Original Message———-

Hi Doug:

I heard you & Jessica this Sunday June 26 on KDKA. bemoaning proliferating deer and the damages they cause. The problem is regional and that a regional solution is needed, which our fragmented Allegheny county municipal governments seems unwilling to tackle. We have what amounts to feral cattle wandering our properties and streets, destroying our landscape, fouling our properties with their defecation and presenting hazards to motorists.

Because the PA Game Commission, which has been granted control over virtually all wildlife, is funded solely from hunting licenses & game law fines, it caters to hunters who want more targets and hence we have rampant deer. These are prey animals and absent natural predators, humans must provide that function and the hunting community is woefully inadequate to the task. Restoring balance requires a more proactive approach on the part of municipalities overrun by these pests. .

We need critical mass to force a solution. It seems to me that gardeners throughout the area, united, could effectively demand action. Or, do we turn our communities into a kind of reversed zoo where people must surround their habitats with bars to keep out destructive wild animals. The problem is widespread and recognized by such authors as Al Cambronne:

and James Sterba.:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/if-we-want-to-protect-deer-we-need-to-shoot-a-few/2012/12/14/fb8b40f2-449a-11e2-8061-253bccfc7532_story.html
http://www.jimsterba.com/works.htm

The University of Michigan and the Ann Arbor Deer control group Washtenaw Citizens for Ecological Balance have shown that notions of non-lethal deer control are “pseudo science”:

Why not light a candle rather than curse the darkness ? You have a forum which reaches thousands in our area. Would you add your voices to call for action in Allegheny County for the sake of both gardeners and for an ecological balance ?

Are we helpless?

"The native plants are tramped down, the bushes are gnawed, and my three-year-old grandson can't play in the back yard because of the deer droppings. If humans entered our property and exacted such a toll we would have legal recourse We're watching the curb appeal and property value decline at a time when our taxes are rising. We are without defense."
M. Holland, Ann Arbor resident